Chipotle Wine Pairings

What pairs best with your burrito - and more!

You wouldn’t think that a tortilla would have a big effect on a wine pairing, what with the cheese, chicken, salsa and lettuce being the same overpowering part of the dish; but in reality, the warm flour soft shell turned out to be a much more wine-friendly choice than the sweet and somewhat greasy crispy corn tortilla.

Having said that, this dish was pretty easy to pair with the white wines, but the reds tend to overpower the dish. The adobo’s sweetness made it a challenge for the rosé and Pinot, something I had not thought about, stripping the fruit out a bit. The whites on the other hand tended to pick up on that sweetness, throwing the wines off balance.

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Comments

Very entertaining piece. I am a Chipotle Veggie Bowl regular and I've often taken my food to go, sat down at home and tried to decide if I should bother opening a bottle of wine, only to find out it clashed with the flavors. Reislings do tend to taste good with mexican food, though. Thanks!

with all due respect, but those of us familliar with "real mexican", cuisine, the only drink that pairs well with the food is beer. You see, a successful taco is well dressed with salsa, this naturally will tend to overpower, unless one is used or is inclined to use a milder type.
I found that mild chipotle pairs well with a white that is more oakley, like a California Chardonnay, since chipotle has this smokey taste.Stronger salsa, and you would switch to beer, it handles it better.
For me wines are best for a lot more refined mexican cuisine, that does not relay so much on strong spices. Like the dishes from the east.

Holy moly, Greg, you're earning your way towards a medal (and likely a health check) if this series continues further.

'Real Mexican' really has nothing to do with these dishes. This is TexMex (or CalMex), with a hint of Brazil, transliterated from its native US regions by chains, etc. to the remote eastern seaboard. Nothing to do with the sauces of Oaxaca, or of Veracruz, or of a dozen other lregions, and all sorts of other preparations of meat and fish, much less tortillas.

But the mission Greg defined is a useful one. I usually go for beer, too, but why not throw some wine in the mix with takeout? Still this is a much more difficult challenge than the McDonald's installment. Who is actually not going to use the salsa?

Anyway, if your health holds up, Greg, keep it up. I can invision another dozen or two or three of some interesting matches....

I too love Mexican Food, both TexMex and the authentic dishes. I often try to pair my foods with wines from the region where the cuisine is from but have found it hard to get Mexican wines in the US. Mexican beer and tequila is everywhere but where’s the wine? I’ve heard Baja is making some great wines and they’re coming to the states through Baja Wines, anyone know more about this?

Tasty article, but ...what happened to fish tacos (ahi tuna) and giving a vino Mexicano a try ??!! (I live near Ensenada, Baja CA., their place of origin and also the epicenter of the ground-gaining Mexican wine industry).
If I may, a suggested article if you are not familiar with this interesting trend known as 'Baja Med'(iterraenian), a renaissance of food and wine happening in northern Baja:

thanks greg - now i'm craving mexican. never gave much thought to the wine pairings past sangria (and the beer mentioned above!) but i'm going to try some of those whites. my mom is coming to town and i'm seeing chipotle and a few of these suggestions on the menu!

Thanks everybody! Yes I'm going to do my best and see what works with all the most popular restaurants here in the states, and then some of the less popular. No fish tacos here in NYC's Chipotle, but a trip to Rubios might be in the cards!